


december 6th: rain in my shoe

by watergator



Series: december fic advent 2020 [6]
Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:14:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27918061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watergator/pseuds/watergator
Summary: prompt: curseddani feels like she has the worst luck ever
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Series: december fic advent 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035978
Comments: 2
Kudos: 57





	december 6th: rain in my shoe

Dani is convinced that she’s cursed.

There’s no doubt about it; she’d happily prove her thesis, even to the most skeptical of people because there  _ has  _ to be some kind of weird juju placed upon her for whatever weird kind of bad luck she’d been experiencing lately. 

Like the moon was off balance or  _ something. _

It starts off with pasta, like any good story, and it’s raining because all it does here is rain, and she’s soon become used to the sound of pitter pattering raindrops against the window as she cooks.

It’s raining and she’s cooking pasta and everything feels… easy. Any maybe that's it, she’ll think to herself later on. Maybe she just fell into a rhythm of easiness that caused her this… this…  _ curse. _

Jamie will be home in about half an hour which lines up perfectly with the dinner she’s preparing them both; knives and forks are already set at the table. There’s one single rose between them in a sweet little pot that Jamie made her a few birthdays ago. (It’s a little bit wonky and the paint is starting to chip away but it’s so fucking great regardless, Dani thinks.)

So she’s cooking the same pasta dish she’s cooked a thousand times, there’s rain against the window and she moves towards where the stereo is, twisting the dial an inch so that Luther Vandross’s  _ Endless Love _ floats around the apartment, flooding it with warmth until—

“Shit!”

Whilst Luther’s dulcet tones are still being sung out, the pasta water boils over, splashing down the stove top and onto the floor, Dani only having a split second to leap out of the way as the pasta foams up rather angrily at her.

She maneavers herself out of the way of any scalding hot water, and turns down the gas, the water returning to a sizzle.

“Oh god,” she says to herself as she picks up the wooden spoon abandoned on the counter, and pushes the pasta around, only to find it’s gone all hard again.

She scoops up a single piece. And it’s burnt to a crisp.

“Fucking fuck,” she hisses angrily, and just then, the front door opens with a groan.

Dani reaches for a towel to clean up some of the mess when she hears soft footsteps approach her, then,

“Is this how we’re greeting me after work now, eh?”

Dani glances at her from over her shoulder, hopefully emitting the same amount of frustration that she’s feeling onto her face, and it must work, because the smug grin on Jamie’s face falters.

“What’s this about?” She asks gently, shrugging her coat off and throwing it in the general direction of the sofa and Dani just sighs.

“I  _ was  _ making pasta,” she tells her, flapping the now damp towel down on the counter and turning the gas off completely. “But as you can see, something went very,  _ very  _ wrong.”

Jamie’s eyes flicker over her face and she bites her bottom lip as if to stop herself from bursting with laughter.

“How did you manage to burn pasta?” She fake whispers, narrowing her eyes at her, and giving into that big, goofy grin.

Dani sighs again and tucks a strand of hair behind her ear as she looks down at the mess that was supposed to be a romantic dinner.

“I’m cursed,” she simply says and Jamie just laughs, loud and brilliantly. 

She moves to take her hands, pulling them closer towards each other by the waist, and Dani happily goes.

“If the pasta is cursed and if you’re cursed… may I suggest a Chinese?”

Dani purses her lips together and looks at her girlfriend. It’s not the ideal dinner date she had in mind, but any Chinese takeout would be a billion times better than what she’s just created. She doesn’t even need Owen to tell her that.

“Fine,” she gives in. “But you’re making dinner tomorrow,” she warns her and she earns herself a pair of lips nipping at her neck.

(The Chinese can wait, she decides.)

So it then occurs to Dani that maybe it really was just a bad pasta job, and she’s not really cursed after all. She sleeps in on a Sunday, lazily makes out with her girlfriend, has a  _ really  _ good cup of tea made by said girlfriend, and she finds a scrunchie she’d thought she had lost, under the sofa.

But all of that comes crashing down one evening when she’s walking home from the florist shop alone. 

Dani had already headed home halfway through the day as agreed by the two of them to go home and sort some things out. So Dani had to take the journey back to the apartment by herself.

Which was never a problem, usually. But it was still raining. And it was cold. And heavy.

The bus is fifteen minutes late. It’s cold. The rain is heavy and she’s starting to believe that she is actually still cursed. 

She’s dreaming of a warm bed with toasty blankets and a cosy body pressed up against hers, when the bus appears out of nowhere, but in the darkness, it mustn’t spot her because instead of slowing down, it remains at the hellfire speed it’s going at and as a result, it passes right through a giant puddle that dips down beneath the pavement.

Dani has no time to react as the water drenches her, soaking right through her coat, her jeans, all the way down to her skin as muddy water drips off the end of her nose, eyelashes and little stray wisps of hair that have come free of her ponytail.

She’s in shock for a split second because it dawns on her that bus is gone. She spins around to try and see if there’s any use in chasing after it, but the dim headlights in the far distance probe not.

She grumbled, trying to shake some of the water off like a dog as she holds her head up high and starts to walk in the direction of home.

By the time she gets home she feels half frozen. Jamie is in the kitchen and she spins on her heels as soon as the door is closed, looking like she already has something to say but everything and anything on her tongue dies away when she gets a proper look at her.

“Bloody  _ hell,  _ Dani!” She cries, dropping the tongs she’d been wielding with a clatter and taking only a few long strides to reach her.

“I was gonna give out about you being late but oh my  _ god.” _ Dani manages half a laugh but it’s useless from the way her teeth are chattering against each other.

“Right. Hot shower,” Jamie demands, pushing her towards the bathroom. “Don’t come out until you’re warm. And I mean  _ warm.” _

Dani doesn’t have the energy to argue, and even if she did, the solid concern and the sound of hot water on her chilled skin make her not want to.

She turns, catches her lips with hers before she shivers again. “Love you,” she whispers and Jamie just smiles, something soft and genuine.

“Love you too, weirdo. Now get your clothes off. And not in the sexy way.”

Dani snorts, and complies easily when the sound of running water starts up. A couple days later and the rain still hasn’t let up, but there’s Chinese takeaway boxes in the recycling and her wet clothes are still draped over the radiator to dry them off.

The rain is still harsh and loud against the window, rattling it as it comes down with heavy force but Dani pays no notice to it.   
  
Mostly because there’s a warm body pressed up against her, arms wrapped tightly around her middle, toes pressed into the backs of her calves and a nose that’s buried in the back of her neck, tickling at her skin with each slow, steady, sleepy breath. 

Jamie stirs, squeezing her waist as she presses into her closer, obviously enjoying the close warmth as much as she is, and it feels like she might never leave this bed from how good it feels to be wrapped up in so much love.   
  
“Don’t leave this bed,” Jamie croaks into her hair, reading her mind like magic and Dani laughs sleepily and finds her hand with hers and intertwines their fingers together, slotting perfectly like they were just made for each other.   
  
“Wasn’t planning on it,” she whispers back and it’s turn for Jamie to laugh tiredly and Dani is sure her heart just doubles at how lovely it sounds.

“I want to drink hot cocoa with you, snuggle under the blankets and kiss you until I can’t feel my lips,” Jamie eventually speaks, and she’s already working her lips lazily between her shoulder blades, making Dani squirm just a bit.   
  
She eventually detaches her girlfriend from her body and twists around to face her; she’s got that dopey look about her when her eyes are hooded and sleepy looking, her smile is lopsided and her short brown curls are strewn against the pillow messily like she couldn’t care less how she looked.

She shuffles in closer until their knees are knocking together, and once again, like magnets, their hands find one another and for the first time in the last few days, Dani wonders how she could ever feel like she’d been cursed when she realised that despite all the bad, she’s always had the most amazing thing right here all along.

“What d’ya say then, Poppins?” Jamie grins and Dani can’t help but fall forwards, press her lips against hers as she laughs.   
  
She pulls away and there’s a slight blush to Jamie’s cheeks that have her tummy flipping over like it’s part of the circus.    
  
There’s no way she’s cursed when something as good as this exists in her life.   
  
“Sounds like a plan,” she whispers, kissing her again, a little long and a little sweeter this time.   
  
And it is, in retrospect, a perfectly splendid plan.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on tumblr !! @watergator


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